Mad Gold (Providence Gold 2)

What if I stood on it? I had huge feet and normally wore boots. What if Dahlia came around with Bing and Baileys - which is what she’d called the puppy because it was apparently the color of the drink Baileys – and I stood on it? Or if I lost it? A warm feeling spread in my chest at the thought of her coming round to my house to stay, just because, even with the concerns swarming around my brain about the puppy.

She’d be sleeping in my bed. Using my shower. Using my towels to wipe her…

A yap from the baby in my hand snapped me out of my thoughts and I had to shift slightly to hide the swelling in my pants. Wrong place, wrong time!

“Have you seen the size of its parents?” Bec asked, nodding at my own new puppy who was already the size of a small dog.

“I know about the breed,” I shrugged. A Malamute wasn’t exactly a rare dog. When I was a kid, my neighbor kid had one and it was freakin’ amazing.

“You might want to get the industrial-sized bag of food,” she advised. “They eat a ton.”

Nodding, I held the Chihuahua out to Dahlia, gesturing at her to swap with me.

“What are you going to call him?” Dahlia asked me, passing the massive puppy back. It had seemed so small before, but having held the other puppy, it now seemed like a full-sized dog.

“I’m not sure. I hadn’t gotten that far. Archer told me about the puppies and when I heard they were Malamutes, I decided I wanted one. Past that, I have no idea.”

“King Kong?” Bec suggested.

“Don’t listen to her, she named her kid Ilsa. How about Godzilla?” Brady snorted as he suggested. “Shortened to Zilla.”

“Listen, I’ve told you repeatedly – Ilsa is a real name. I can’t help it if you’ve never watched Casablanca. Will you please just leave your niece’s beautiful name alone?” Bec growled, and we were back into awkwardsville.

“I like Ilsa,” Dahlia said, breaking the tension and getting a glare from Brady and a beaming grin from Bec in return.

“You named your dog after alcohol,” Brady replied, rolling his eyes. “Your opinion is moot.”

If he’d said it nastily or like he actually meant it, I would have kicked his ass regardless of who he was friends with. But as he’d said it, his lips had been twitching, and he was currently trying not to laugh at the middle finger that Dahlia was shooting him, so I let it go.

There was silence again as we all looked at the puppy and tried to think of a name. Those two suggestions were definitely out, though. Poor dog would have a complex.

“Harambe!” Dahlia suddenly said, and the puppy on my lap yapped. “That’s the one. Harambe.”

“As in the gorilla that was killed when the kid fell in its cage at the zoo?” Bec asked, looking as confused as her brother.

Groaning, I tipped my head back to look at the ceiling as she explained. “Yeah, I call Madix Harambe because he’s a big guy and tends to dominate the space he’s in. I think it would be perfect for the puppy.”

“You…” Brady choked. “You nicknamed your boyfriend after a gorilla?”

She didn’t reject the word boyfriend or say anything to the contrary. Instead, she nodded and then grinned at me. The other bonus was - if I named the dog Harambe, they wouldn’t be able to call me that anymore.

This trip was the best idea I’d ever had.

Or so I thought. I maybe should have paid more attention to the word ‘giant’ instead of focusing on the Malamute part. If I had, I might have waited until a normal-sized Malamute puppy had become available.EightDahlia“S top laughing,” Madix snapped as we drove home.

I’d just looked up the details for a giant Alaskan Malamute and when I’d seen how big they got to, I’d asked if he’d deliberately gotten a dog to match his own size. That’s when he’d realized the difference between a normal version of the breed versus what he’d gotten.

Over one-hundred-and-fifty pounds of dog that would grow to be a big boy all over. And he also had the consolation that they needed to be entertained and worked out, otherwise they became bored and could be destructive. He literally had the canine version of Harambe! He’d already been intending to take the puppy to work with him, but now he’d have to look at making sure he never left him with nothing to do in his neat and organized house too.

Unable to hold it in, I buried my face in Harambe’s fur and started laughing again. He’d chosen to sit on my lap whilst Baileys was curled up on Madix’s lap fast asleep and looked like a little mouse. Damn it if I wasn’t jealous as hell of him. I wanted to curl up on his crotch and fall asleep while he drove. Well, no, not quite. But I wouldn’t mind being near it!